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GREENSBORO — Lindy and Linda Duncan didn’t get to watch President Barack Obama’s speech Monday about General Motors filing for bankruptcy.
Instead, they bought a car — a GM product at that.

The Duncans spent the noon hour at Terry Labonte Chevrolet, trading their 2002 Mercury Sable and 2003 Chevy Cavalier for a 2008 Impala.

Now that they’re both retired, they figure they don’t need two vehicles.

But the news that GM had entered bankruptcy gave them little pause.

“I knew it was coming,” Lindy Duncan said as he waited for a salesman to finish the paperwork on his transaction. “I’m satisfied with the deal.”

For customers like the Duncans, GM’s long-anticipated bankruptcy should have little impact.

But the Detroit automaker will emerge from bankruptcy as a significantly different company, one with fewer employees, fewer plants, fewer dealerships, fewer brands and less debt.

“(The bankruptcy) will give this iconic company a chance to rise again,” Obama said in his speech, which the sales staff and managers at the Labonte dealership took time to watch. “Our goal is to help GM get back on its feet.”

Meanwhile, dealerships such as the one on Bridford Parkway will continue to sell and service cars and trucks.

“There’s no sense of shock,” said Dave Hansing, the dealership’s general manager. “It’s business as usual.”

But these days, with the nation in a deep recession, usual doesn’t mean what it once did for the American auto industry. Customers no longer trade vehicles every two years or even every four. And they wait longer to get them serviced.

Ashley Overton would be a prime example.

Overton, who owns small shopping centers, stopped by the Labonte dealership Monday to have some minor work done on his Corvette. Typically, he would buy a new car every two to three years.

Now, he says it could be another two years, or longer, before he buys another car.

“I’m not trading anything right now,” Overton said. “I’m out of the market. ... There are two many uncertainties.”

But when he is ready to buy, Overton says he’ll consider another GM vehicle. “I normally look there first,” he said.

Even in bankruptcy, GM continues to have a loyal — albeit smaller — fan base. They say they’re disappointed that the auto giant has fallen so far. They blame the company, foreign car makers and the United Auto Workers for what has happened.

“I think the union just ruined the company,” said Dave Mason, president of Club Vette, a Corvette group with more than 110 members across the Triad. “I think that, in a nutshell, is what killed it.”

But even in the worst of times, the automaker still has it supporters.

“I’m a GM man all the way,” said Larry Hamon, an Oak Ridge resident who owns a Chevy pickup, a Monte Carlo, a Tahoe and four Corvettes. “I drive them all. I will never drive nothing else.”

Lindy Duncan says he likes GM cars too and fondly remembers his 1957 black Chevy two-door hardtop.

“I wish I had that back,” Duncan said of the GM classic. “I’ve owned a little bit of everything, but I am primarily a GM man.”

In the face of GM’s bankruptcy, Duncan said he had two concerns about buying another Chevy. He wanted to know if the Labonte dealership would remain open and was told it would. And he wanted to make sure that the company would honor his warranty.

“If they don’t,” he said, “we’ll have to have a word of prayer with them.”
 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
 

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com